Statements like “universities are obsolete” or “universities are dying” are comical. And untrue. Universities are continuing to grow in enrolment and general influence in society. Calling universities obsolete while we are early on in the so-called knowledge economy is like declaring factories obsolete in the 18th century just as the industrial revolution was taking hold. Utter nonsense.

While George does talk about challenges in education, I think he misses part of the point of the article. And this is something that I’ve been thinking (and writing – see Physics Lectures) about for a long time. Here’s the point:

It’s incredibly easy to capture and distribute lectures.

Rather than getting a lecture from whoever is teaching your course locally, wouldn’t it be better to get a world-class lecture.

As the article points out:

At the same time, millions of learners around the world are watching world-class lectures online about every subject imaginable, from fractional reserve banking to moral philosophy to pharmacology, supplied by Harvard, MIT, and The Open University.

Have you seen Planet Earth or watched a Professor Lewin physics presentation? There’s basically no way to compete with those sources. And wouldn’t it be better to get the best available lecture with local discussion, studying, testing, etc.?

I’m not quite sure that I buy the article’s contention that:

The simple fact is that university lectures never worked that well in the first place – it’s just that for centuries, we didn’t have any better option for transmitting information. In fact, the success of top universities, both now and historically, is in spite of lectures, not because of it.

Maybe that’s because I’ve learned a lot in schools that way. But even if you keep lectures, but you open up everyone to the Best Lecture available on a given topic … The implications here for education are profound.

Best Lectures in Corporate Training

I also believe the implications here are profound for corporate training. We can continue to hide behind the myth that our content is special and different. Some of the time, that’s quite true. But there’s a lot of content (leadership, management, safety, etc.) that really should not be replicated by every organization.

What’s also interesting about this situation is that there are similar barriers from the content creators standpoint. In the Business of Learning, I talk about the challenges as a content creator and how the business models might work. And every day, I’m talking with people who have great content and could be creating the Best Lecture on a topic. And while they can easily capture it, getting it distributed in a way that pays is difficult. Instead, they need to package it into a unit that is self-contained. They need something similar to an LMS or a course that runs in a corporate LMS. But it certainly won’t look like a Best Lecture model with corporate eLearning professionals being able to act like local discussion, studying, testing.

I’m not sure what any of this will look like in education or in corporate training – but I am sure it will be quite different in 20 years from how we do it today.

In this post, we will look more closely at costs of Text-to-Speech and issues around TTS Voice Licensing and Pricing. The subject of TTS voice licensing and pricing is important because it helps e-learning practitioners understand which TTS tools they are legally allowed to use for their specific applications as well as letting them estimate the costs and pricing models of using these TTS tools.

Voice Talent Rates and Implications on TTS Licensing and Pricing

When the TTS voice manufacturers looked for a pricing model for their product, they naturally looked at the model used by real voice talents, including the rates and the types of usage.

Here are some examples of rates of voice talents suited for e-learning (voice talents for advertising can be a lot more). The rates are given in $ per hour of recorded sound.

In addition, voice talents and voice producers tend to charge depending on the purpose of the recording and size of the intended audience of the recording. If the recording is going to be heard by many people and helps the customer make a lot of money, the voice talents expect to get more money than if the recording has a very limited use. The rates will be different for local, regional or national broadcasts. For example: a 30 second recording for a TV commercial broadcast all over the US may cost several times more than a five minute recording for a local documentary (voice123.com).

The TTS vendors learned two things from the voice-talent pricing model:

The price level – Because of their perceived lower voice quality, TTS voices need to be priced much lower than their real counterparts to be an attractive alternative

The TTS voice price need to be fixed according to the value of its use to the customer.

Based on the second criterion, the TTS vendors work with the following two general usage categories:

Personal Use - reading books, making sound files for personal use, etc. This is a low value usage.

Audio Distribution – a sound file that was created with the voice is distributed and played to an audience. This usage has a higher value.

Audio Distribution

Audio distribution, which is similar to broadcasting a voice talent recording, is considered to be a usage that is more valuable to the customer. Within audio distribution the following categories exist. They are listed according to increasing value to the customer:

Internal audio distribution - a company puts an audio training presentation with the TTS sound file on an internal server – intended for company employees only

Public audio distribution - a company puts an audio product presentation they made with the TTS sound file on a public web site – intended for a more general audience. Includes call centers.

Selling a TTS sound file for profit - a company sells an audio training presentation they made with the TTS sound file for profit

E-learning courses created by corporations are typically in the category of internal audio distribution – the course is put on the company server to be accessed by company employees.

TTS Voice Licenses

The TTS voice vendors enforce the intended usage of a voice by a voice license, which precisely describes the restrictions on the use of the voice. Strictly speaking, the vendors sell a license to use the voice software rather than selling the voice itself.

The following licenses are used:

Personal Use License – this license covers personal use of the TTS voice by the customer and expressly prohibits audio distribution - thus cannot be used for e-learning. Examples of products that use voices with personal license are: Natural Reader, TextAloud, Read the Words, and Spoken Text.

Personal licenses are sold for a low fixed price. In general, a price less than $50 indicates a personal license.

Audio Distribution License (ADL) – This is the license that permits audio distribution and is the type of license required for e-learning in business and education. The voice vendors have fixed the rate for an ADL license to be around 1/3 – 2/3 of the price of the equivalent voice talent ($1200/hour), depending on the TTS voice quality. The basic TTS voices cost $360/hour of recorded time and for the best TTS voices the rate can go up to $720/hour of recorded time.

The TTS voices with ADL are sold in three ways:

Fixed Price – this model allows a company to purchase any TTS voice with full audio distribution rights from a vendor without being tied to the specific authoring tools (e.g., Captivate) and its bundled voices. In talking to vendors (Neospeech), I was told that this model had been selected by some companies. Acapela also offers a model like this for unrestricted ADL. The fixed price depends on the exact usage. A typical price for internal training courses is $2500, which represents about 7 hours of recorded time.

On-Demand - Voices can be purchased via on-demand web services or desktop products that accept text and generate sound files. They charge according to elapsed time of the generated file, at a rate of about $6/min ($360/hour).

From a Reseller – A company purchases voices from a reseller at a reduced price. The price is lower because the reseller has bought voices in volume. This is the case for Adobe Captivate and Tuval Software’s Speech-Over Professional where those companies resell the voices bundled with their products and the voice license terms are specified with the product. At present, the purchase price for these tools includes a fixed price for the voice license that does not depend on the elapsed time of the generated file.

Course developers generally are going to use bundled products, i.e., from a reseller. In some cases, there will be use of other models.

Please note that events, dates, titles, and locations may change; thus, CHECK the specific conference website. Note also that some events will be cancelled at a later date. All Internet addresses were verified at the time of publication. No liability is assumed for any errors that may have been introduced inadvertently during the assembly of thisconference list. If possible, please do not remove the contact information when you re-distribute the list as that is how I receive updates and corrections. If you publish the list on the web, please note its source.

If you are mounting your own conference, please ensure that the following information is clearly visible on your web page and/or poster: the name of the event, location (including country), date of the event, the FULL name of the sponsoring organization, and an e-mail contact address. Often conference organizers forget to provide the full name of the organization and an e-mail contact address. And send that to Clayton.

December 2-3, 2010 Enhancing Learning Experiences in Higher Education: An International Conference, hosted by the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. http://www.cetl.hku.hk/conference2010/

December 5-8, 2010 Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education Conference (ASCILITE): Curriculum, Technology and Transformation for an Unknown Future, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. http://www.ascilite.org.au/index.php?p=conference

December 17-19, 2010 One Voice San Francisco International Conference and Forum for Educators sponsored by the One Voice Institute of Elemental Ethics and Education, San Diego, California, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/

January 7-9, 2011 International Conference on Computer Modeling and Simulation (ICCMS 2011), 3rd, organized by the International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology, Mumbai, India. http://iccms.org/

January 23-28, 2011 GlobeNet 2011, including the International Conference on Networks (10th), International Conference on Systems (6th), and the International Conference on Advances in Databases, Knowledge and Data Applications (3rd), St. Maarten, The Netherland Antilles. http://www.iaria.org/conferences2011/GlobeNet11.html

January 24-27, 2011 World Congress on Computer Science and Information Technology organized by the International Foundation for Modern Education and Scientific Research, Cairo, Egypt. http://www.infomesr.org/WCSIT11.html

January 31-February 3, 2011 Annual Forum on e-Learning Excellence in the Middle East: Being at the Leading Edge – How to Give Quest for Excellence a New Meaning, 4th, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. http://elexforum.etqm.ae/

International Lifelong Learning in Europe Conference, 12th, was held January 27-29, 2010 in Tuusula, Finland. The conference will not be held it 2011 and may be held in 2012. http://www.lline.fi/

Technology, Reading and Learning Difficulties Conference, 26th, was held January 22-24, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency, San Francisco, California, USA. Due to the current economic uncertainty, future conferences have been postponed. http://www.trld.com/

As of Nov. 11, 2010, information for the 2011 versions of the 2010 events below was not available.

January 12-14, 2010 Learning and Technology World Forum 2010, London, United Kingdom. http://www.latwf.org/

February 1-3, 2011 LearnTec 2010 International Convention and Trade Fair for Educational and Information Technology: The Potential for Growth in Vocational Education and Training, 19th, Karlsruhe, Germany. http://www.learntec.de/

February 7-10, 2011 International Conference on New Technologies, Mobility and Security, 4th, sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Paris, France. http://www.ntms-conf.org/

February 14-16, 2011 O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, 5th annual, produced by O’Reilly Media, New York City, New York, USA. http://conferences.oreillynet.com/

February 14-16, 2011 Artificial Intelligence and Applications International Conference, sponsored by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), 11th, Innsbruck, Austria. http://www.iasted.org/ l

February 14-17, 2011 Education 2011-2021: Global Challenges and Perspectives of Blended and Distance Education presented by DE Hub and the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODLAA), Sydney, Australia. http://www.dehub.edu.au/summit2011/index.html

February 15-17, 2011 Parallel and Distributed Computing and Networks, sponsored by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Innsbruck, Austria. http://www.iasted.org/

February 15-18, 2011 Education 2011-2021 Summit: Global Challenges and Perspectives of Blended and Distance Learning, hosted by the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODLAA) and the Distance Education Research Consortium (DEHub), Sydney, Australia. http://www.dehub.edu.au/summit2011/about.html

February 15-18, 2011 Global TIME: Global Conference on Technology, Innovation, Media and Education, offered online, sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), http://www.aace.org/conf/gtime/

February 16-18, 2011 Computer Graphics and Imaging, 12th international conference of the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Innsbruck, Austria. http://www.iasted.org/

February 20-23, 2011 Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) Competition and Collaboration in the Global Transformation of Higher Education, San Francisco, California, USA. http://www.aieaworld.org/

February 22-24, 2011 Global TIME: Global Conference on Technology, Innovation, Media and Education, sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), offered online. http://aace.org/conf/gtime/

February 23-28, 2011 Digital World 2011 including International Conference on Digital Society (5th), International Workshop for Innovative Methods for Intrusion Prevention and Detection Systems (1st), International Conference on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions (4th), International Conference on e-Health, Telemedicine and Social Medicine (3rd), International Conference on Mobile, Hybrid and Online Learning (3rd), International Conference on Information, Process, and Knowledge Management (3rd), and International Conference on Technical and Legal Aspects of the e-Society, sponsored by the International Academy, Research and Industry Association (IARIA), Gosier, Guadeloupe, France. http://www.iaria.org/conferences2011/DigitalWorld11.html

Problem-Based Learning and Active Learning Methodologies (PBL 2010): Connecting People, Ideas and Communities, was held February 8-12, 2010 at the University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. A conference is expected to be held in Cali, Columbia, in 2010, but a date has not been finalized. http://each.uspnet.usp.br/pbl2010/

As of Nov. 11, 2010, information for the 2011 versions of the 2010 events below was not available.

March 6-8, 2011 Managing Planning,Managing Change: Transforming the Academic Landscape, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, sponsored by the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), Virginia, USA. http://www.scup.org/page/regions/ma/2011

March 7-11, 2011 Building the Scientific Mind (BtSM2011), Fourth Advanced International Colloquium: Learning for Sustainable Futures, organized by the Learning Development Institute. Stellenbosch, South Africa. http://www.learndev.org/BtSM2011.html.

March 7-April 8, 2011 Teaching that Informs and Transforms: Strategies and Techniques for Engaging and Challenging Today’s Learners, sponsored by the National Resource Center, University of South Carolina, offered online. http://www.sc.edu/fye/events/

March 10-13, 2011 International Conference on the e-Society 2011, sponsored by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS), Avila, Spain. http://www.esociety-conf.org/

March 17-19, 2011 Computer Using Educators (CUE) Inc.: Ignite, Inspire and Innovate Learning, annual conference, hosted by the Computer Using Educators and the Community College Foundation, Palm Springs, California, USA. http://www.cue.org

March 20-25, 2011, WebTel comprising International Conference on Telecommunications (7th), International Conference on Internet and Web Applicationsand Services (6th) and the International Conference on Internet Monitoring and Protection (6th) sponsored by the International Academy Research, and Industry Association (IARIA), St. Maarten, The Netherlands Antilles. http://www.iaria.org/

March 21-24, 2011 Orlando Annual Multi-Disciplinary Conference, sponsored by the International Journal of Arts and Sciences, annual, Rosen College of the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA. http://www.internationaljournal.org/orlando.html

March 21-25, 2011 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications, Seattle, USA. http://www.percom.org/

March 26, 2011 One Voice Washington International Conference and Forum for Educators sponsored by the One Voice Institute of Elemental Ethics and Education, Washington, D.C., USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/

March 30-April 2, 2011 Global Forum on Cross-Border Higher Education: Levelling the International Playing Field – A New Global Regionalism for Sustainable Partnerships, Student Mobility and Open and Distance Learning organized by The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education and Athabasca University, Banff, Alberta, Canada. http://www.obhe.ac.uk/home or http://www.athabascau.ca/

March 30-April 3, 2011 The Information Society for the Information Age Summit, sponsored by the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), Hyatt Regency, Denver, Colorado, USA. http://www.asis.org/conferences.html

April 4-May 6, 2011 Models and Methods of Student Advising: Promoting Career and Academic Success and Transition, sponsored by the National Resource Center, University of South Carolina, offered online. http://www.sc.edu/fye/events/

April 6, 2011 Standards of Good Practice Institute: Ethics and Integrity in Education Abroad, sponsored by the Forum on Education Abroad, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. http://www.forumea.org/Institute11.htm

April 8-12, 2011 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting: Inciting the Social Imagination – Education Research for the Public Good, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. http://aera.net/

April 15-17, 2011 International Conference on Knowledge Discovery (ICKD), sponsored by the International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology (IACSIT), Chengdu, Sichuan, China. http://www.ickd.org/

April 17-22, 2011 NexComm 2011 including the International Conference on Advances in Multimedia (3rd) and the International Conference on Digital Telecommunications (6th), sponsored by the International Academy Research, and Industry Association (IARIA), Budapest, Hungary. http://www.iaria.org/

April 29, 2011 One Voice Houston International Conference and Forum for Educators sponsored by the One Voice Institute of Elemental Ethics and Education, Houston, Texas, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/

May 1-5, 2011 Canada MoodleMoot: Open Learning and Open Collaboration, sponsored by Athabasca University and the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. http://moodlemoot.ca or CanadaMoot@knowplace.ca

May 1-5, 2011 Comparative and International Education Society Conference: Education is that which liberates”, 55th annual, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. http://www.cies.us/groups.htm

May 19-21, 2011 The Role of Graduate Employment and Tracking Systems for Continuous Curricula Development and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education, sponsored the the UNESCO European Centre for Higher Education (CEPES) Sibiu, Romania. http://conferences.ulbsibiu.ro/unescocepes/en/

May 19-21, 2011 International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS), 5th, Guadeloupe, France. http://www.rcis-conf.com/

May 22-27, 2011 InfoSys 2011, including International Conference on Networking and Services (7th), sponsored by the International Academy Research, and Industry Association (IARIA), Venice, Italy. http://www.iaria.org/

May 24-26, 2011 Department and Division Chair Workshop, sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), Louisville, Kentucky, USA. http://www.cic.edu/

May 24-27, 2011 International Institute on Partnerships: Reciprocal Partnerships – Transforming Higher Education and Community for the Future, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, USA. http://www.pdx.edu/cae/contact-us

May 28-31, 2011 Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE), University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. http://www.accute.ca/conference.html

May 28-June 5, 2011 Congress 2011 of the Humanities and Social Sciences: Coasts and Continents – Exploring Peoples and Places, sponsored by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS). Event will be held at the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. http://www.congress2011.ca/ or http://www.congress2011countdown.ca/news.html

May 29-June 1, 2011 National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence: Putting Teaching and Learning on the Map, 33rd, Austin, Texas, USA. http://www.nisod.org/conference/

May 29-June 2, 2011 Learning in Higher Education: Beyond Transmission – Innovations in University Teaching, 5th international, sponsored by the International Academic Association for the Enhancement of Learning in Higher Education, Aghia Marina, Aegina Island, Greece.

May 29-June 2, 2011, International Association of Scientific and Technological University Libraries (IATUL): Libraries for an Open Environment – Strategies, Technologies and Partnerships, 32nd annual, Warsaw, Poland. http://www.iatul2011.bgpw.congressor.eu/

May ? 2011 Leading Learning Conference, 6th, hosted by the Toronto Catholic District School Board, the Trillium-Lakelands District School Board, the Peel District School Board, the York Regional School Board, and York University, Hockley Valley Resort, Orangeville near Toronto, Ontario, Canada. www.leadinglearning.org

As of Nov. 11, 2010, information for the 2011 versions of the 2010 events below was not available.

June 1-4, 2011 The International Institute for SoTL Scholars and Mentors (formerly The National Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning - CASTL Institute): Transformational Learning – Engaging Education in a Global World, hosted by Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA. http://www.creighton.edu/castl/

June 8-10, 2011 Department and Division Chair Workshop:Leading from the Middle – The Critical Administrative Link, sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), San Diego, California, USA. http://www.cic.edu/

June 10-12, 2011 Adult Education Research (AERC), 52nd annual, and the National Conference of the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE), 30th, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. http://www.adulterc.org/Conference.htm

June 11-18, 2011 College Teaching and Learning MediterraneanConference Cruise, sponsored by the Clute Institute for Academic Research. http://www.cluteinstitute.com

June 12-15, 2011 Learning College Summit, sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College, hosted by Maricopa Community College District, Phoenix, Arizona, USA. http://www.league.org/lcs/

June 16-17, 2011 Higher Education Institutional Research Conference: Scanning the Horizons – Institutional Research in a Borderless World, 4th annual, Kingston-Upon-Thames, The United Kingdom. http://www.heir2011.org.uk/

June 16-20, 2011 One Voice Santa Fe International Conference and Forum for Educators sponsored by the One Voice Institute of Elemental Ethics and Education, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/

June 19-22, 2011 ICDE Standing Conference of Presidents (SCOP): Open Learning in a New Economy, hosted by the International Council of Distance Education (ICDE) and SUNY Empire State College, New York, NY, USA. http://choose.esc.edu/scop2011/

June 20-22, 2011 MODISM World Canada 2011 International Conference and Trade Show: Modelling and Simulation - Enabling Visionaries to Develop the Next Generation of Products and Processes, 4th, sponsored by the Canadian eLearning Enterprise Alliance, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. http://www.modsimworldcanada.com/

June 20-23, 2011 International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications, 11th, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain. http://www.iccsa.org/

June 27-July 1, 2011 ED-MEDIA 2011: World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Lisbon, Portugal. http://aace.org/conf/

July 1-2, 2011 International Conference on Computing and Computer Vision, Kathmandu, Nepal. http://www.icccv.org/

July 1-3, 2011 International Conference on Educational Technologies (EDUTE ‘ 11) sponsored by the World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society (WSEAS), Iasi, Romania. http://www.wseas.org/

July 1-3, 2011 Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Summer Conference: Differentiated Instruction, Understanding by Design, What Works in Schools, and Curriculum Mapping, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. http://www.ascd.org/conferences.aspx

July 5-8, 2011 International Study Association for Teachers and Teaching (ISATT): Back to the Future: Legacies, Continuities and Changes in Educational Policy, Practice and Research, 15th, biennial, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal. http://www.isatt.org/Conferences.htm

July 6-8, 2011 Education in a Changing Environment: Creativity and Engagement in Higher Education, 6th international conference, University of Salford, Manchester, The United Kingdom. http://www.ece.salford.ac.uk/

July 6-8, 2011 Electronic Visualisation and Arts (EVA), sponsored by the Computer Arts Society and the Chartered Institute for IT, London, The United Kingdom. http://www.eva-london.org/

July 11-13, 2011 Computers and Advanced Technology in Education (CATE), sponsored by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Cambridge, The United Kingdom. http://www.iasted.org/conferences/

July 11-13, 2011 Graphics and Virtual Reality, sponsored by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Cambridge, The United Kingdom. http://www.iasted.org/conferences/

July 14-16, 2011 Communications and Information Technology (CIT 11), 5th, co-organized by The World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society (WSEAS) and the North Atlantic University Union (NAUN), Corfu Island, Greece. http://www.naun.org/conferences/2011/cit/index.html

July 17-20, 2011, Embrace the Journey for School-Based Professional Learning, sponsored by Learning Forward (formerly known as the National Staff Development Council – NSDC), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. http://www.learningforward.org/summer11/index.cfm

July 20-21, 2011 International Research Forum, sponsored by the National Association of African American Studies (NAAAS), Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. http://www.naaas.org/

July 22-24, 2011 International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) International Conference on Game and Entertainment Technologies (GET2011), Rome, Italy. http://www.gaming-conf.org/

July 22-24, 2011 International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) International Conference on Internet Applications and Research, Rome, Italy. http://www.iar-conf.org/

July 22-24, 2011 International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) International Conference on CollaborativeTechnologies, Freiburg, Germany. http://www.collaborativetech-conf.org/

July 22-25, 2011 National Media Education Conference and Research Summit, sponsored by the National Association for Media Literacy Education, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. http://namle.net/conference/

July 23-27, 2011 Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) Annual International Conference and Idea Marketplace: Integrated Solutions – How & Now, 46th, National Harbour, Maryland, USA. http://www.scup.org/page/annualconf/46

July 24-26, 2011 International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) International Conference on Computer Graphics and Visualization, Freiburg, Germany. http://www.cgv-conf.org/

July 24-26, 2011 International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) International Conference on Interfaces and Human Computer, Rome, Italy. http://www.ihci-conf.org/

July 24-26, 2011 International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) International Conference on ICT, Society and Human Beings, Rome, Italy. http://www.ict-conf.org

July 25-27, 2011 International Multi-Conference on Innovative Developments in ICT (INNOV 2011), 2nd, including International Conference on Green Computing, International Conference on e-Health Services and Technologies, International Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning, and International Conference on IT-enabled Innovation in Enterprise, Sofia, Bulgaria. http://www.innov.org/home.asp

July 25-27, 2011 International Forum and Workshop for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Innovations in Teaching and Learning to Meet the Demands of the 21st Century, organized by the Teaching and Learning Centre, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. http://www.ubd.edu.bn/forum/TLC%20Forum/TLC.htm

July 29-31, 2011 International Conference on the Teaching of Psychology, co-hosted by Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Douglas College and Langara College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. http://kwantlen.ca/ictp.html

August 7-11, 2011 International Association of School Librarianship, 40th, and International Forum on Research in School Librarianship (15th): School Libraries – Empowering the 21st Learner, Kingston, Jamaica. http://www.iasl-online.org/events/conf/2011/

August 7-11, 2011 Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, SIGGRAPH 2011: International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, 38th, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. http://www.siggraph.org/s2011

August 21-27, 2011, Netware 2011 including The International Conference on Advances in Future Internet (3rd), the International Conference on Emerging Security Information, Systems and Technologies (5th) sponsored by the International Academy Research, and Industry Association (IARIA), French Riviera, France. http://www.iaria.org/

August 27, 2011 One Voice Chicago International Conference and Forum for Educators sponsored by the One Voice Institute of Elemental Ethics and Education, Chicago, Illinois, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/

August 28, 2011 One Voice St. Louis International Conference and Forum for Educators sponsored by the One Voice Institute of Elemental Ethics and Education, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/

August 30-September 3, 2011 European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction (EARLI): Education for a Global Networked Society, 14th biennial, Exeter, The United Kingdom. http://www.earli.org/

September 6-8, 2011 International Networking for Education in Healthcare Conference (NET2011), Churchill College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, The United Kingdom. http://www.jillrogersassociates.co.uk

September 6-8, 2011 International Conference of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT-C 2011): Thriving in a Colder and More Challenging Climate, University of Leeds, Leeds, The United Kingdom. http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2011/

September 6-9, 2011 British Educational Research Association Conference, Institute of Education, London, The United Kingdom. http://www.bera.ac.uk/

September 6-9, 2011 International Conference on Internet Technologies and Applications, 4th, Glyndwr University, Wrexham, North Wales, The United Kingdom. http://www.ita11.org/

September 13-15, 2011 International Conference on Education and Development, 11th, sponsored by British Department of International Development, Cambridge International, Aga Kahn Foundation, and Jeremy Greenland Bursary Trust, Oxford, The United Kingdom, http://www.cfbt.com/UKFIET/

September 16-18, 2011 International Conference on Distance Learning and Education (ICDLE), 5th, sponsored by the International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology, Singapore, Singapore. http://www.icdle.org/index.htm

September 16-18, 2011 International Conference on Future Information Technology, 2nd, sponsored by the International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology, Singapore, Singapore. http://www.icfit.org/

September 25-28, 2011 The Cambridge International Conference on Open, Distance and e-Learning, presented with the Open University and the Commonwealth of Learning, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, The United Kingdom. http://www2.open.ac.uk/r06/conference/

September 25-28, 2011 Council for Opportunity in Education (COE): America’s Future – The Role of Education in Our National Security, Washington, DC, USA. http://www.coenet.us/

October 2-5, 2011 International Council for Distance Education (ICDE) World Conference: Expanding Horizons – New Approaches to ODL, 24th, hosted by Universitas Terbuka, Bali, Indonesia. http://icde.org/

October 2-5, 2011 League for Innovation in the Community College STEMtech (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Conference 2011, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. http://www.league.org/2011stemtech/

October 3-5, 2011 International Conference on Education and Educational Technology: The current and approaching issues of education and educational technology, 10th, organized by the World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society, Penang, Malaysia. http://www.wseas.us/conferences/2011/penang/edu/

October 7-12, 2011 The Information Society for the Information Age, sponsored by the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), Marriott New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. http://www.asis.org/conferences.html

October 9-13, 2011 The Information Society for the Information Age, sponsored by the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. http://www.asis.org/conferences.html

October 17-19, 2011 International Professional Communication Conference: Communicating Sustainability, sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Professional Communication Society, University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/pcs/

October 20-23, 2011 International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL): Transforming the Academy through the Theory and Practice of SOTL, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. http://www.issotl.org/conferences.html

October 21, 2011 Horizons, sponsored by the Computer Using Educators of British Columbia, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. http://cuebcconference.ca/

October 22, 2011 One Voice New York International Conference and Forum for Educators sponsored by the One Voice Institute of Elemental Ethics and Education, New York, New York, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/

October 23, 2011 One Voice Boston International Conference and Forum for Educators sponsored by the One Voice Institute of Elemental Ethics and Education, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/

October 24-26, 2011 Technology for Education and Learning, sponsored by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Beijing, China. http://www.iasted.org/conferences/

October 24-26, 2011 ASSETS 2011, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Special Interest Group on Computers and Accessibility Conference, 13th, Dundee, Scotland, The United Kingdom. http://www.sigaccess.org/assets11/

October 26-28, 2011 North American Council for Staff, Program and Organizational Development (NCSPOD): Grounded in Community, Pursuing Strategic Solutions, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. http://www.ncspod.org/

November 4-6, 2011 International Conference on Open and Distance Learning: Open and Distance Education for Global Collaboration and Educational Development, 6th, Loutraki, Greece. http://icodl2011.eap.gr/icodl2011en/index.htm

November 6-8, 2011 Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA 2011), sponsored by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. http://www.celda-conf.org/

November 6-9, 2011 National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA): At the Confluence of Creation and Collaboration, 53rd annual, Washington, D.C., USA. http://www.ncura.edu/content/

November 12-17, 2011 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services (SIGUCCS) Fall Conference, San Diego, California, USA. http://www.siguccs.org/

November 16, 2011 International Vocational Education and Training Association (IVETA) Annual Conference: Technical Vocational Education and Training Staff Development – Meeting the Needs of the Knowledge Economy, in conjunction with the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. http://www.iveta.org

November 16-18, 2011 Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. http://www.cstd.ca/

November 17-18, 2011 Strategies for Securing Equity in Access and Success in Higher Education sponsored by the International Associations of Universities, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya. http://www.iau-aiu.net/conferences/upcoming.html

November 17-18, 2011 Using Technology to Enhance Learning, 16th annual, hosted by the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), Birmingham, The United Kingdom. http://seda.ac.uk/

November 18-21, 2011 International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning and Educational Materials Exhibition, sponsored by the Japanese Association for Language Teaching, 37th, Tokyo, Japan. http://jalt.org/main/conferences

November 20-25, 2011 International Conference on Mobile Ubiquitous Computing, Systems, Services and Technologies, sponsored by International Academy, Research and Industry Association (IARIA), Lisbon, Portugal. http://www.iaria.org/conferences2011/UBICOMM11.html

November 23-24, 2011 International Conference on Future of Higher Education: Development and Technology, hosted by the Kingdom University, Manama, Bahrain. http://ku.edu.bh/

November 23-25, 2011 European Association for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning Conference: Balancing Workplace Learning and Practitioner Research across Professional Fields. Nijmegen, The Netherlands. http://www.eapril.org/

November 27-December 1, 2011 Learning in Higher Education: Transforming University Teaching into Learning via Simulations and Games, 6th international symposium, sponsored by sponsored by the International Academic Association for the Enhancement of Learning in Higher Education Sydney, Australia. http://lihe.wordpress.com/future-events/lihe11-australia/

November 27-December 1, 2011 Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE): Reaching Across Boundaries, Hobart Tasmania, Australia. http://www.aare.edu.au/live/

December 3, 2011 One Voice Atlanta International Conference and Forum for Educators sponsored by the One Voice Institute of Elemental Ethics and Education, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/

December 4, 2011 One Voice Miami International Conference and Forum for Educators sponsored by the One Voice Institute of Elemental Ethics and Education, Miami, Florida, USA. http://www.elementalethics.com/

December 6-9, 2011 International Conference on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Sustaining Student-Centric Higher Education – Embracing Diversity and Empowering GEN Y Learners, organized by the National University of Singapore, Singapore. http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/tlhe/

January 24-27, 2012 International Conference on Information Technology and Travel Tourism (ENTER): eTourism Present and Future Services and Applications organized by the International Federation for Information Technology and Travel and Tourism (IFITT), 18th, Helsingborg, Sweden. http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2012/

January ?, 2012 The 6th Technology for Innovation and Education in Developing Countries (TEDC 2010) Workshop, was held January 21-23, 2010 in Maputo, Mozambique. http://cs.joensuu.fi/tedc2010/index.html

March 21-25, 2012 The Information Architecture Summit, sponsored by the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. http://www.asis.org/conferences.html

March 24-26, 2012 ASCD Annual Conference: A Collective Call to Action, sponsored by ASCD formerly known as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. http://www.ascd.org/conferences.aspx

April ?, 2012 Australian Council for Computers in Education Conference, biennial, was held April 6-9, 2010 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.http://www.acce.edu.au/

April ?, 2012 New Zealand Association of Distance Education (DEANZ) Conference, held every two years. The 2010 conference was held at Te Papa Tongarewa, National Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand, http://www.deanz.org.nz/

June 25-29, 2012 ED-MEDIA 2012: World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Denver, Colorado, USA. http://aace.org/conf/

June ?, 2012 Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange 2010, location to be announced USA. http://www.ttix.org/

June ?, 2012 International Conference on Cultural Attitudes towards Technology and Communication, biennial conference, was held June 15-18, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, USA. http://www.catacconference.org/

June ?, 2012 Psychology Learning and Teaching (PLAT0) Conference. The 5th biennial conference was held June 30-July 2, 2010. It was organized by the Psychology Network, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, The United Kingdom. http://www.psychology.heacademy.ac.uk/plat2010/

October 2-5, 2012 Australian Computers in Education Conference, sponsored by the Australian Council for Computers in Education and the Educational Computing Association of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. http://acec2012.info/

October 26-31, 2012 The Information Society for the Information Age, 75th annual, sponsored by the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), Hyatt Regency New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. http://www.asis.org/conferences.html

About Me

Dr. Tony Karrer works as a part-time CTO for startups and midsize software companies - helping them get product out the door and turn around technology issues. He is considered one of the top technologists in eLearning and is known for working with numerous startups including being the original CTO for eHarmony for its first four years. Dr. Karrer taught Computer Science for eleven years. He has also worked on projects for many Fortune 500 companies including Credit
Suisse, Royal Bank of Canada, Citibank, Lexus, Microsoft, Nissan,
Universal, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Fidelity
Investments, Symbol Technologies and SHL Systemhouse. Dr. Karrer was
valedictorian at Loyola Marymount University, attended the University
of Southern California as a Tau Beta Pi fellow, one of the top 30
engineers in the nation, and received a M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer
Science. He is a frequent speaker at industry and academic events.